Hemmings Muscle Machines

“The team... had the foresight not to limit the subject matter... to the definition of muscle: 1964-’72...” I can still remember the phone call from my colleague Richard Lentinello, telling me about the new magazine he and his staff were launching over at Hemmings. Richard and I had met some years prior while we worked together at CSK, a small publishing company in northern New Jersey, which had been my first magazine gig. We’d clicked quickly, recognizing our shared interests in a broad spectrum of cars, and that we both enjoyed the technical side of those machines. Each of us had spent time working in restoration shops previously, and despite our desk jobs, we both maintained a bit of grease under our fingernails from recreational wrenching. But Richard knew that…

ALL GOOD THINGS MUST disappear in time, whether that time feels premature or not — and that dreaded time, it seems, is firmly upon us. Despite ample demand for Dodge’s Durango SRT Hellcat SUV (the last high-performance Dodgebadged Hemi-powered vehicle built) continuing unabated in the wake of the as-yet-unreplaced Challenger’s and Charger’s disappearance at the end of 2023, this year is scheduled to spell the end of both the Hemi and this generation of the Durango’s life. The end is nigh, everybody. To go kicking and screaming into that good night, and to celebrate 20 years of Hemi-powered Durango in the face of its imminent dismissal from the company roster, Dodge is launching not one but three special-edition, Hellcat-powered versions coming for 2025. Even with three options, you’re not spoiled,…

Letter of the Month: Make Mine Modified “I am well behind in my HMM reading as I spent several months in Europe and somehow for the first time, missed one of Jim McGowan’s columns (“Restore or Modify,” HMM #255, reprinted from the April 2015 issue). He and I bought our ’65 GTOs on Long Island several weeks apart. At that time, our beautiful cars were considered one of the top performing vehicles available from Detroit. I still believe that the ’65 GTO is one of the most beautiful cars ever made, with those stacked headlights and its sleek aggressive body style. As a longtime racer, still going strong at 80, my goal has continually been to keep our GTOs respected as performance vehicles. Unfortunately, 360 horsepower is now surpassed…

THINGS ARE NOT always as they seem. Take for example, this 1968 Camaro race car. On the surface, it seems to be a stripped-down version of the original-issue production car. Painted Sunoco Blue with all the right lettering, the Chevrolet was a winner taking nine of 11 races during the 1968 season with Mark Donohue at the wheel and Roger Penske calling the signals. But this simple Camaro is far more than an initial glance will reveal. A lot more. TRANS AM SETS THE STAGE The Sports Car Club of America created the Trans-American Sedan Championship in 1966. For a car model to be qualified for competition, no less than 1,000 examples had to have been produced during the prior 12 months. The rules were based on those of FIA…

MERCURY, in ancient Roman mythology, was much more than just the wing-sandaled messenger of the god squad. Speed was surely the image that Ford had in mind for its upscale marque, which initially saw a more powerful flathead V-8 in a mildly facelifted Ford sedan, but the mythical Roman deity had quite a bit more going on. Mercury was also the patron saint of merchants and their goods, along with travelers and written communication. He held a caduceus (a magic problem-solving wand) and a purse (symbolic of his importance to commerce). Ol’ Mercury was also known to pull the odd prank here and there, that naughty cad (hence the word mercurial). So, imagine a muscle machine that hasn’t just been given the Mercury name because its maker said so, but…

SOME PEOPLE WAIT THEIR WHOLE LIVES for their dream car. I was kinda lucky. Mine showed up right after the tide receded from Hurricane Sandy. It was a car located just a few blocks from my house, and sadly it was devoured by the rising sea that fateful day in October of 2012. In the aftermath, the car was placed in long-term storage. I ended up tracking it down and purchasing the once-submerged car, which was left uncared for since the day it took its saltwater bath. It was rusted and rotten, but certainly worth saving. This was the car I was waiting for, and it was finally in my possession. This particular ’70 Barracuda convertible was a low-mileage base-model car that had seen very little driving time over its…